Fight for Your Right to Advertise to Kids

The "top three advertisers of packaged-foods to children," General Mills, Kellogg and Kraft Foods, along with the Grocery Manufacturers of America and several advertising associations, "have created a lobbying group to defend the right to advertise to kids." The new group, the Alliance for American Advertising, states, "There is not a correlation between advertising trends and recent childhood obesity trends." The Alliance hopes to avoid federal regulation, using tactics that echo "earlier efforts by the tobacco and alcohol industries." In other food news, a "U.S. appeals court ruled that McDonald's must face a suit by New York teenagers" who blame the fast food giant for their obesity and health problems.